Bonnie Prince Charlie

This is simply the best biography of Charles Edward Stuart. It is meticulously researched and absolutely gimlet-like in its analysis of the man and his career. 

Yet though McLynn depicts the prince warts and all (and some of the warts, such as his propensity for domestic violence, are pretty disgusting), he retains a fundamental sympathy for the flawed human being.  In the larger sense it is very much an account, too, of the gathering degradation of a man who in other circumstances might have become a radical, reforming monarch.

The most detailed and thorough, balanced and thoughtful, biography of the hero of 1745- or its villain, depending on your politics.

The difficult childhood, brilliant youth, entitled and bitter middle age, and drunken and abusive old age of the Prince are all brilliantly covered in a magisterial study that examined 100,000 documents, and is still a good read after all that.